Do college towns sleep more?

Short sleep, under seven hours a night, is more common in some places than others, and it is less common where more adults have degrees.

Each dot in the chart is one of 3,094 counties. The correlation between Bachelor’s Degree or Higher and Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours is -0.50, a strong relationship: about 25% of the differences in Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours from place to place line up with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher. Ranked instead of measured, the link is -0.52.

The highest Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours is in Greene County, AL (51.0%), Phillips County, AR (50.5%) and Bullock County, AL (50.5%); the lowest is in Boulder County, CO (24.7%), Deschutes County, OR (25.6%) and Washington County, MN (25.7%). The median place has 37.6% for Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours and 22.2% for Bachelor’s Degree or Higher.

The biggest exceptions sit furthest from the trend line. Honolulu County, HI, Greene County, AL and Petersburg city, VA have a much higher Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours than their Bachelor’s Degree or Higher would predict, while Adams County, WA, Garfield County, CO and Perkins County, SD have a much lower one.

This is a comparison across places, not proof that one causes the other: both can follow from something else, such as income, age or how urban a place is. Bachelor’s Degree or Higher is from 2024 and Adults Sleeping Under 7 Hours from 2022.